


Sirenia

by fikkifini



Category: Free!
Genre: Drowning, First Kiss, M/M, Mostly Fluff, Teensy Weensy Angst, because god damn I can't write ONE FIC without them kissing, mermaid au, mermaid haru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-06 23:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10346742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fikkifini/pseuds/fikkifini
Summary: Worst fear becomes reality for Makoto during a trip to the beach with his siblings. However, he has quite the hard time figuring out what alternate universe he must have landed in when he awakes.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lazysailormercury](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=lazysailormercury).



> This lovely prompt came to me as a (MY FIRST OMG) fic commission from lazysailormercury on tumblr. The request was for a mermaid!Haru who saves Makoto from drowning, so I was gladly forced to finally write my first mermaid au. I'm actually really pleased with it and I was so excited do it that I finished writing in just a few hours! So thank you for the prompt and for your support!!
> 
> If you'd like to commission me for a fic, please check out my blog for the [guidelines](http://tachinanabananase.tumblr.com/post/158422619449/free-ficoneshot-commissions#notes)! Again, thank you so much for all your help!

_The ocean isn’t really as big as it has always seemed_. This, Makoto surmises as the depthless expanse of midnight blue coils his body in darkness, a lurking chill seeping into the core of every bone in his body. His head starts to thrum under the pressure around him. He looks up, or at least, where he thinks is up, and sees the last of the sunlight breaking through crashing waves above dimming. His eyes droop shut and his chest tightens with panic, constricted without air. No, the ocean’s sheer mass isn’t at all what he had always thought.

It’s much bigger.

As Makoto tries not to think about just how much longer the strangled breath he took above water will last him, about how much his head aches and his throat sears, he spends his last few seconds of consciousness remembering his brother and sister. Their joyful shrieking as he chased them down the banks of the beach, soft hands reassuring in his while they lead him out for his first swim in the ocean since… well, it had to have been years. His fear was no secret, even as a twenty-two year old recent college graduate. But no matter how many times he volunteered to take his siblings on a fun day at the beach, he had always insisted on remaining far up on the baking sand. He could keep an eye on the twins from there, and if anything happened- well, he’d cross that bridge if it ever came. Today though, he tried to be a good big brother for them. He tried to show them that fear is silly, and that “ _Oni-chan can be brave too!”_

He hopes they don’t blame themselves for what’s happened now.

He hopes that the same, stupid fear paralyzing his limbs as he sinks deeper below the surface doesn’t plague them for the rest of their lives either.

Makoto can’t really think much more after that, since everything has gone dark. He probably cries at some point, but either way the salt water swallows his despair up like the vortex of a hurricane, leaving not a salvageable piece of evidence behind.

Then, something much more soft and friendly than the cold ocean wraps around him, and in his dismal state of mind, Makoto hopes that this hazy dream is the good part about dying. The part where someone, whoever or whatever is watching over the earth, wraps you up in their saving embrace and takes you to… to… he can’t quite say, but he thinks that it’s probably somewhere safer than drowning in the sea.

Rugged, dense rock hits his back. Makoto jolts as his insides suddenly burn for him to take a breath. He coughs, sputtering up what feels like liquid fire as it leaves his body and tries to open his eyes against the glare before him, but it’s painful. He recognizes the pleasant breeze and the sound of gulls and realizes there’s no water. He must have been saved.

He blinks through the itch in his eyelids and manages to get them open while he sits up, but what he sees is evidence enough that no, he really hasn’t been saved, because _mermaids_ certainly don’t exist in the world he was living on mere minutes ago.

“Are you okay?”

Makoto’s too busy staring at the creature’s ink black hair and rounded blue eyes to notice. Well, if mermaids were to ever exist, he thinks that having eyes the same deep and mysterious shade of the sea is more than fitting. Oh, and not to mention the tail. He’s definitely been staring at the tail draped next to him across the rock for an uncomfortably long time. Although, the way its periwinkle and baby blue scales reflect the sunlight is admittedly beautiful.

“Do you speak?” The mermaid asks again, but this time it’s more impatient.

Makoto has to work his jaw for a second before he can actually get the words out. “Um, yeah,” he croaks, seawater still burning in his esophagus, “I speak. Sorry. Are you-?” The mermaid just cocks a dark brow at him, waiting for the rest of his sentence. “Is this real?”

“You were drowning, do you not remember? I saw you and I pulled you out.” His voice is almost as blank as the expression on his face, although Makoto can see there’s still a small sliver of worry creased in his forehead.

“No, no, I definitely remember that.” The pounding in his head won’t really let him forget. “I just… you’re a mermaid?”

“A what?”

“A mermaid. You know, half-human, half-fish. Like… in the fairytales?” Makoto’s assurance sinks since he can clearly tell said mermaid has no idea what he’s talking about.

“Is that what you call us?” The translucent tips of his tail flicker with interest. Makoto finds it a bit creepy but mostly endearing.

“Mhm. What do you call yourself then?”

“Haruka,” he replies, matter-of-fact.

Makoto realizes quickly that he needs to rephrase that question. “Nice to meet you, Haruka. Sorry, but I meant what do you _all_ call yourselves?”

Haruka shrugs and glances out across the water surrounding them, his pale shoulders dripping with dancing droplets of water. “We don’t, really. We consider ourselves like the rest of the fish.”

Makoto finds this pretty confusing, but he tries not to get too caught up in the logic, since this is probably all a fever dream anyway. “That’s okay, I like fish.” He figures the little quirk of Haruka’s lips is the closest thing he has to a smile.

“What do you call yourself?”

“Humans. Some people say _homosapiens_ but I think that’s pretentious, like they just want to show off how-”

“No, I meant _you_ , not you all.”

Rightfully embarrassed, Makoto blushes and runs a hand through his sopping hair before mumbling a meek, “T-tachibana Makoto. But… but I guess you can call me just Makoto.”

“Hm.” Haruka hums thoughtfully.

“What is it?”

“I was always told humans were scary. You are not so scary at all.”

This brings a smile back on Makoto’s lips. He leans in a little closer to Haruka, not as worried about keeping a precautionary distance anymore. “Thanks, I guess. Some humans are, but I try not to be mean.” He suddenly remembers to correct himself, a little less cheerful now. “Or, at least I did. I can’t really do that now if I’m… you know.”

“What?”

“Well… dead.”

“You’re not dead,” Haruka insists flatly, annoyed.

Makoto gives a half-hearted laugh, despite the gnawing feeling inside his gut. Haru’s right; he _feels_ alive, with the wind on his drying skin and the ache in his lungs and the nausea in his stomach whenever he thinks of the twins. But there’s one _fishy_ detail that still has convinced him none of it can be true.

“Thanks, Haruka, but I doubt I was able to get back to the surface in time.”

“You didn’t. I helped.”

“I know, but you didn’t _really_ help. See, since you’re not real, I know that everything _after_ you showed up must not be real either.”

Haru gives an exasperated grunt. “Humans may not be scary, but the others were right when they told me you were stupid.”

A little offended by that, Makoto gives a pout and crosses his arms over his bare chest. “That’s not very nice.”

“I’m not nice.”

“Well you saved me, so that’s nice.”

Haruka’s little smirk appears again. “I thought you said I _didn’t_ save you.”

Rolling his eyes, Makoto tosses his hands up in defeat. “Fine, you saved me from drowning _in this dream_ , _because I’m dead_.”

“You can’t feel things if you’re dead, right?”

He shrugs, not really sure about anything at this point. “I guess, but-”

Makoto’s tasting salt again as soft, insistent lips press against his. It’s only for a second, two at most, but Makoto knows the feeling that follows is most definitely his heart still pounding inside him. Very much alive.

“Did you feel that?” Haruka’s voice is soft but kind of businesslike, as if just performing a science experiment. The cute contrast makes Makoto wheeze out a chuckle.

“Yeah,” he agrees with hot cheeks, a hand coming up to revel in the clear-as-day _thump, thump, thump,_ beneath his chest. “I definitely felt that.”

He notices Haruka’s tail twitch again, like a pleased puppy. “Do you believe me now?”

Makoto nods and swallows thickly, finding he could definitely get over his fear of the ocean if he gets to keep seeing it sparkling in the blue of Haruka’s eyes.

“You really did save me then.”

Haru tosses his gaze out to the water surrounding them, his murmured reply coming after a heavy silence. “You looked scared. I… I just did what was right.”

“I have a brother and sister. My whole family, they… they would have been devastated if I hadn’t-” he chokes, though not on water anymore. The reality of what had almost happened hits him harder than the wave that sent him under in the first place. He feels the tears that wet his face now, but there’s no hurricane waiting to wipe them away this time; only the tender sweep of Haruka’s thumbs on his cheek. Makoto moves closer again, tentatively reaching for the hand on his face. When he takes it, he notices the rough feel of tiny patches of scales beneath his thumb. “Thank you. I owe you my life, Haru-chan.”

He gruffs, “Don’t call me Haru-chan.”

“Fine, then just Haru,” Makoto concedes easily, not really in the mood to put up a fight with the (mer)man who is the only reason why he’s still breathing. However, it seems like Haru can really care less about whatever it is Makoto’s calling him, because he’s staring at the droplets on his face like Makoto’s actually crying liquid gold and not just regular old tears. “Are _you_ okay?”

“What are these?” Haru swipes his finger to catch a drop and squints at it curiously.

“They’re… tears.” He doesn’t mean to sound rude, but he can’t help his response to such an obvious question. Haru looks between him and the teardrop on the pad of his thumb, then watches as Makoto blinks back the rest of the ones waiting to spill from his eyes.

“No, let them out. The water wants to be free,” he insists adamantly, and it’s so precious, filled with such conviction, that the watery snort of laughter Makoto lets out leads to exactly what Haru asked for. He feels incredibly silly, like an absolute hot mess sobbing from fear, relief, _utter confusion_ , you name it. But Haru doesn’t seem to mind it at all. Not as Makoto starts to shake from the overwhelming reality that _he could have died_ , not even when the brunet’s hands search for something to hold, and Haru hesitantly meets him in an embrace, a little rigid but sincere nonetheless.

They stay there on that rock for who knows how long. Until Haru breaks the silence that has settled between them with a soft but deliberate, “Your family. They’re calling you.”

Makoto reluctantly moves from where his face is pressed into Haru’s clavicle and glances around, but doesn’t see anything but ocean nor hear any calls. “You can hear them?”

“I’ll take you to the beach,” Haru’s suddenly all business again, maneuvering himself to the edge of the rock before leaping into the water gracefully. He pops up a second later, expectant. “Well? Come on.”

“Haru,” Makoto breathes. Something inside him is wishing, somehow, despite all the fear, that he can stay stranded on this rock for just a little bit longer.

The mermaid extends a hand back up to Makoto. “Let’s get you back to your family.”

Sighing, knowing it’s inevitable, Makoto eyes the water hesitantly. Relaxing at the secure warmth of Haru’s fingers wrapping around his, he searches for courage in azure once more.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.”

He squeezes Haru’s hand gratefully before he leaps into the water, musing once again that he was wrong about the ocean. _It really isn’t as big as it seems._

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Comment, kudos, or [send me a prompt](http://tachinanabananase.tumblr.com/post/158422619449/free-ficoneshot-commissions#notes) yourself!


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